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Thursday, March 27, 2014

So the flight broke through the clouds coming into Calgary and it seemed like we were going to land on a cloud. In other words, the outlaying area of Calgary was still very much covered in snow with a light snow still coming down as the plane landed.

Yes, still hockey season.

Obviously, it’s been a while now since the Rangers beat the Flyers, 3-1, at Madison Square Garden Wednesday night. Here’s what I posted to the blog immediately after the game, before catching a couple of hours of Zzzzzzs before the flight.

The Rangers did not practice today, instead taking a late morning flight here to Calgary where they’re scheduled to have a full morning skate before facing the Flyers Friday night.

The win over the Flyers did give the Rangers a bit of a playoff cushion with eight regular-season games remaining but with the Flyers, three points back, having two games in hand, it’s not much of a comfort zone. That said. I’m back to thinking the Rangers are that second level of teams in the East behind the Bruins and Penguins. Right now, the Bruins would have to be considered the favorite to make it out of the East but the Rangers, with Henrik Lundqvist playing well (he nearly had his third shutout in his last nine starts before Jakub Voracek’s late goal) do have the potential of making a run if/when they reach the postseason.

Given that the Rangers have a six-point lead over both the Blue Jackets and Capitals, it does seem like they’re heading toward that two-versus-three divisional matchup, again, quite possibly against the Flyers.

Lundqvist reached 30 victories for the eighth time in nine NHL seasons - a strong mark of consistency. In fact, the one season he didn’t reach 30 was last season, when the lockout reduced the schedule to 48 games and he still led the league in victories. Lundqvist holds the NHL record for starting his career with seven straight 30-win seasons.
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Huge, important win for the Rangers tonight, 3-1, over their closest pursuer in the Metropolitan Division, the Flyers.

So the Rangers six three points ahead of the Flyers with 86 points, though the Flyers have played two fewer games. Both the Blue Jackets and the Capitals, neither who played tonight, have 80 points, though the Blue Jackets have played the same 72 games as the Flyers and the Capitals have played 73 games, one fewer than the Rangers. Those 80 points, which the Red Wings (72 games) and fading Maple Leafs (74 games) currently stands as the wild-card cutoff.

Not going to lie, this is going to be brief because it’s 11:37 p.m. and the car is coming to pick me up at 4:45 for an early-morning flight to Calgary. The Rangers don’t practice tomorrow, just a late-morning flight to Calgary so I’ll be able to do more of a wrap up blog post either waiting at the airport in the morning or after I arrive at the hotel.

To tide you over, please click this link to read the game story from The Record.

For now, I’ll leave you with this: Derek Dorsett wore the Broadway Hat and I asked coach Alain Vigneault, in his estimation, whether Dorsett was back to being the player he was before breaking his left fibula on Jan. 3. Without hesitation Vigneault said yes, then sort of joked that while Dorsett will never be considered a grateful skater, he was doing a good job of getting to where he needed to be.

And both Vigneault and Brian Boyle were strong in their opinion that defenseman Ryan McDonagh deserves consideration for the Norris Trophy this season as the NHL’s top defenseman.

McDonagh now has a five-game point streak (three goals, four assists) and has 14 goals and 29 assists.

“I think he should be in it (the conversation) right now,” Boyle said. “Everything he does, he’s so consistent.”

“He’s just been a force out there,” Vigneault added. “He’s got to be getting some consideration for the Norris.”

Derek Stepan, McDonagh’s teammate at Wisconsin, said this is “something I’ve seen from Mac since I started with him…Now you guys get to see his offensive side. He’s got a big offensive side that he hasn’t shown as much.”

About

ANDREW GROSS covers the New York Rangers for The Record and Herald News, having joined the North Jersey Media Group in November 2007. Gross also covered the Rangers and New York Jets, as well as St. John’s basketball and Army football, for Gannett Newspapers and The Journal News (N.Y.). He graduated from Syracuse University in 1989 with a degree in newspaper journalism.